The extremely popular Call of Duty franchise continues to chug along — creating hit release after hit release — and increasing the realism of the series with enhanced graphics and storytelling — including bringing in House of Cards star Kevin Spacey to model and act a character in the next installment, Call of Duty: Ghosts.

But that desire to capture the realism of war and character might've backfired for the video game publisher Activision-Blizzard responsible for producing the beloved Call of Duty titles.

Ex-dictator Manuel Noriega, 80, filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles County Superior Court against Activision for the depiction of himself in Call of Duty: Black Ops II and for not asking his permission to use his likeness in the 2012 bestseller on Tuesday.

According to Noriega, Activision portrayed him as “a kidnapper, murderer and enemy of the state" as a way of achieving a more realistic product to increase sales. Noriega is looking to recoup lost profits and seeking damages.

Noriega's dictatorship over Panama lasted from 1983 until 1989 when U.S. military forces invaded Panama and removed Noriega from power. In 1992, Noriega was tried on eight counts of racketeering, drug trafficking and money laundering. Fifteen years later in 2007, Noriega's prison sentence in the U.S. ended. In 2010, he was extradited to France for money laundering charges and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Conditional release was granted, though, for Noriega's extradition to Panama so he could face charges for human rights violations. Noriega was convicted in Panama for the murders of 11 people and sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he is still serving in El Renacer Prison.

When Call of Duty: Black Ops II was released in November 2012, it made $500 million worldwide in 24 hours. In a total of two weeks, the game would net $1 billion. According to fan sites, in the game, the CIA uses Noriega to capture the game's main villain. Noriega later turns on the CIA.

Here is a video of Noreiga in Call of Duty: Black Ops II after two characters capture him:

Noriega's likeness isn't the only potentially problematic character in Call of Duty: Black Ops II. When the game was first released in 2012, critics questioned a certain character that seemed to resemble former U.S. Gen. David Petraeus — who had just left his post as CIA director at the time due to details of his extramarital affair coming to light.

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